People
Jehovah does not exaggerate mankind’s importance. All men (people) being sinners, they are justly worthy of death, and it is only by God’s undeserved kindness and mercy that any will gain life. (Ro 5:12, 21; 1Jo 4:9, 10) Jehovah owes nothing to mankind, and life everlasting for those who attain it will be a gift, not wages earned. (Ro 5:15; 6:23; Tit 3:4, 5) Know thy Name All things relating to God’s person are holy; his personal name, Jehovah, is holy and hence is to be sanctified. (Le 22:32) To sanctify means “to make holy, set apart or hold as sacred,” and therefore not to use as something common, or ordinary. (Isa 6:1-3; Lu 1:49; Re 4:8; see SANCTIFICATION.) Because of the Person it represents, Jehovah’s name is “great and fear-inspiring” (Ps 99:3, 5), “majestic,” and “unreachably high” (Ps 8:1; 148:13), worthy of being regarded with awe (Isa 29:23).it-2 pp. 5-20 Jehovah Professor of Hebrew D. H. Weir says that those who claim Exodus 6:2, 3 is the first time the name Jehovah was revealed, “have not studied verses in the light of other scriptures; otherwise they would have perceived that by name must be meant here not the two syllables which make up the word Jehovah, but the idea which it expresses. When we read in Isaiah, ch. lii. 6, ‘Therefore my people shall know my name;’ or in Jeremiah, ch. xvi. 21, ‘They shall know that my name is Jehovah;’ or in the Psalms, Ps. ix. 16, ‘They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee;’ we see at once that to know Jehovah’s name is something very different from knowing the four letters of which it is composed. It is to know by experience that Jehovah really is what his name declares him to be. (Compare also Is. xix. 20, 21; Eze. xx. 5, 9; xxxix. 6, 7; Ps. lxxxiii. 18; lxxxix. 16; 2 Ch. vi. 33.)”—The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, Vol. I, pp. 856, 857.it-2 pp. 5-20 Jehovah Praise Jah The Codex Leningrad B 19⁠A, of the 11th century C.E., vowel points the Tetragrammaton to read Yehwahʹ, Yehwihʹ, and Yeho·wahʹ. Ginsburg’s edition of the Masoretic text vowel points the divine name to read Yeho·wahʹ. (Ge 3:14, ftn) Hebrew scholars generally favor “Yahweh” as the most likely pronunciation. They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Ha·lelu-Yahʹ (meaning “Praise Jah, you people!”). (Ps 104:35; 150:1, 6)it-2 pp. 5-20 Jehovah In connection with the annual Day of Atonement, Danby’s translation of the Mishnah states: “And when the priests and the people which stood in the Temple Court heard the Expressed Name come forth from the mouth of the High Priest, they used to kneel and bow themselves and fall down on their faces and say, ‘Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever!’” (Yoma 6:2) Of the daily priestly blessings, Sotah 7:6 says: “In the Temple they pronounced the Name as it was written, but in the provinces by a substituted word.” Restoration In foretelling his restoration of his name people to Judah and their cleansing, Jehovah again made clear to them his main concern, saying: “And I shall have compassion on my holy name.” “‘Not for your sakes am I doing it, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have come in.’ ‘And I shall certainly sanctify my great name, which was being profaned . . . ; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘when I am sanctified among you before their eyes.’”—Eze 36:20-27, 32. References Category:Topics